Motivating Beyond the Classroom

Every so often, we meet somebody who truly inspires us to excel. We are excited to introduce this highly respected program from our Singapore campus to Stamford, where we invite the world’s most inspirational minds, industry leaders, artists and athletes to engage with our students, invigorating, inspiring and motivating them with the drive to excel in their chosen paths.

James Scott, Performance Director, Shanghai Sharks

On March 3, Stamford welcomed their latest Global Mentor, James Scott, in a first large-scale event to the community promoting the importance of sports. James is currently coach of the Shanghai Sharks basketball team and treated those at the event to two free high-intensity basketball clinics. Read more >

Excited students and happy families participated in the successful event held at Stamford’s brand new athletics hall. In addition to the basketball clinics, they enjoyed a variety of other activities which reflect the 19 co-curricular activities that Stamford offers its students, including fencing, coding, innovation workshops and arts and crafts, among others.

More than popularity of the sport, Stamford’s invitation to Scott was also because of his work ethic and passion. “We know that to be a professional athlete it requires a lot of discipline and hard work. We were impressed with James’ dedication and sacrifice to achieve his dream,” Dietz noted, Head of School at Stamford.

To help achieve his current success, Scott made sacrifices such as quitting his job, moving back in with his grandmother and cleaning a gym for free for two years, just for the opportunity to work with Anthony Falstone and train Yao Ming. This eventually led him to a job with the Houston Rockets first and later, in 2009, upon Yao Ming’s invitation his position with the Shanghai Sharks.

Scott also delivered a short talk about the benefits of athletics and sports for children in developing transferable life skills, such as being coachable, having discipline and learning from disappointments. These important lessons that students learn outside of the classroom shape their character and mold their personality. With such attributes, it is no wonder that Scott believes these codes to be as important as – if not more than – any other classes.

Watch James In Action (Click On The Photo To Play)

Cesar Jung-Harada, MakerBay

Cesar Jung-Harada visited Stamford to share his insprirational story of hard work, dedication and passion with our Greade 5-7 students. He also worked with students to design and build life-size boats and helped them to better understand the design cycle and the challenges of turning ideas into reality. Cesar is a French-Japanese inventor, environmentalist and director of MakerBay, Hong Kong’s makerspace for social and environmental impact, where he’s been working on solutions to man-made problems such as oil spills and radioactive leaks.

His most remarkable invention to date is Protei, a revolutionary open-source sailing technology that allows for efficient clean-up of both oil and plastics from the sea. He’s a TED Senior Fellow, a Figure of Progress (nominated by GOOD and IBM) and an APEC Maker Awardee. Intriguingly, Cesar studied animation—his work has been shown at festivals and events around the world. See the amazing boat project details >

Sarah Brennan, Author

Sarah Brennan visited Stamford for a second time to read some of her classic tales and also engage students in writing workshops. She inspired students with her love for words and also introduced them to a world of new vocabulary. Sarah is a great mentor not only because she is published and skillful, but also because she pursued her dream to be an author.

She started writing a funny column for a local parenting magazine and transitioned into children's stories. In November 2007, she started her own publishing company Auspicious Times Limited, which has now published The Tale of Run Run Rat,The Tale of Oswald Ox, The Tale of Temujin, The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Sybil Snake, The Tale of A Dark Horse, The Tale of Rodney Ram, The Tale of Ming Kee Monkey, The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster and my very latest book, The Tale of Desmond Dog.! See photos here>

Bay McLaughlin, COO Brinc.io

In October 2017, we invited Bay McLaughlin, co-founder and COO of Brinc which began as an IoT (internet of things) accelerator company that expanded into a product design studio and an education platform with offices in six countries around the world. Read more about Bay >

Bay shared with our students his journey in innovation from early in his career in Apple, to working in his own start-up companies until co-founding Brinc in 2014. Bay also showed some of the innovative products that Brinc is helping to bring to the market for the betterment of health. Students saw how innovation can be used to help solving the world’s problems and were inspired to think beyond the traditional constructs of innovation and challenge themselves. Students will also be visiting Brinc’s office to see the company in action and meeting other innovators like BAY throughout the school year as their learning journey continues. Bay also spoke to our parents and teachers about how we can help inspire the next generation of transformative thinkers.

Dr. Bunhead - World Famous TV Scientist

We place a special emphasis on science in our curriculum and offer a problem-based Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Innovation (STEMinn) Program to challenge students in these disciplines through critical thinking and real-world application. On Tuesday, May 9th, we invited Dr. Bunhead to delight children and their parents with a mesmerizing scientific experiment exploring the unique properties of liquid nitrogen. Dr. Bunhead also talked about the life of being a family theater performer and the benefits of engaging in a STEMinn Program from young. After meeting Dr. Bunhead, children enjoyed experimenting and making their own hypotheses with science kits such as Energy Sticks and Gotcha Gadgets. See photos here > | Read full article about Dr. Bunhead's visit written by South China Morning Post here >

Michelle Sun - Forbes' 30 Under 30 for Tech Enterprise

Michelle Sun, Co-Founder & CEO of First Code Academy, is visiting Stamford American School as part of our Global Mentor Program to inspire parents and children to be change-makers and creative entrepreneurs. Nominated as one of Forbes' "30 Under 30" for Enterprise Tech, Michelle believes every person should be empowered to use technology to express themselves and bring their ideas to life. During this exciting seminar, Michelle shared with parents her experience starting her own company, and gave her thoughts on the importance of innovation, coding and digital literacy in the 21st century. See photos here > | Read full article about Michelle Sun's visit written by South China Morning Post here >

Joy Koh - Gymnastics World Championships Judge & Coach

We invited Ms. Joy Koh, the highest qualified gymnastics coach in Singapore, to fly down to Hong Kong to inspire children here to achieve more than they believe they can. Joy led free gymnastics workshops to teach children a combination of movement patterns and foundational sports skills (see photos here). Joy was delighted to meet with parents to give a talk on "Raising Champions", where she discussed character building through sports and how to succeed inside and outside of the gym. While in Hong Kong, Joy was also interviewed by South China Morning Post on her experience as a World Championships judge and coach (read the full article here).

Stamford American School Hong Kong is a candidate school for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme and pursuing authorization as an IB World School.

IB World Schools share a common philosophy—a commitment to improve the teaching and learning of a diverse and inclusive community of students by delivering challenging, high quality programmes of international education that share a powerful vision.